How To Cover The Roof With Wood

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Tes - a reliable roof, proven for centuries

In Soviet times in Leningrad "Detgiz" published a series of books under the general title: "Know and be able." Some of them talked about what kinds of crafts exist and how to become in them, if not a real master, then at least have an idea of what is what. In our time, the call "Know and be able" can be fully attributed to the development of roofing materials.

After an extremely scarce range of roofing materials in the era of developed socialism, the time has come for their abundance. Moreover, such that, pronouncing completely unfamiliar names before, for example, such as: ondulin, shinglas, shindel, most gardeners hardly even really imagine what it is, and even more so they do not know how this or that material should be used in business …

Indeed, often when choosing them, you have to trust only advertising. However, advertisers (manufacturers of roofing materials), defending their vested interests, in every possible way extol the allegedly unsurpassed advantages of their products. And, of course, they will not say a single word about the shortcomings of the roofing materials they produce. Although they are always there. It is well known that in nature there are no ideal roofing materials suitable, as they say, for all occasions.

That is why a person who has taken up the construction of a roof made of hitherto unknown materials should know something and be able to do something. And in order to help him in this difficult matter, we are starting a series of articles on the most commonly used roofing materials. I have laid most of them with my own hands more than once, with the exception, perhaps, of slate tiles and roofing made of copper sheets. True, I have seen how this is done. And we will start, perhaps, with the old Russian plank roof …

Since time immemorial, in countries with harsh climates and rich forests, wood has been used not only for the construction of walls, but also for roofs. And this has its own reason: roofing material (tes) is always at hand. In addition, this roof is very light: one cubic meter, depending on the tree species, weighs from 21 to 30 kilograms.

No special tools or special skills are required to lay the wood. First of all, you need to understand that each board (board) fits the entire length of the slope and, as a rule, the long side is perpendicular to the ridge. Boards are used mainly of conifers with a thickness of 19-45 millimeters and a width of no more than 20 centimeters. Wider boards often warp, thereby compromising the integrity of the coating. Roof boards must be dry, straight, without curvature, rot, wormholes, always of the same thickness.

With a two-layer coating, the boards for the upper layer are planed from above and from the sides, and for the lower one - only from above. With a single layer - top and sides. Any wood used for roofing must be treated with antiseptics and fire retardants (fire retardants increase fire resistance).

However, with all the obvious advantages of a tessera roof, there are two significant disadvantages: combustibility and wood-boring insects. To completely get rid of two evils - troubles and misfortunes are almost impossible. It is believed that the ultimate service life of a timber roof is about 15 years. However, operating experience shows that with proper installation and timely, constant maintenance of the roof, its durability is significantly extended.

In order to protect the roof from the plank from leaking, which usually occurs from drying out and cracking, the boards of the lower row must be laid with the convexity of the annual rings (hump) down, and with the tray (concavity) up. The boards of the upper row are laid with the hump up, and with the tray (concavity) down (see Figure 1). This arrangement is due to the fact that water from the convex boards of the upper row enters the tray of the lower row, without penetrating into the attic.

Even on the front side of the boards of the upper row, from the sides, it is necessary to select grooves 10-15 millimeters wide and about 5 millimeters deep (depending on the thickness of the boards being laid). Through these grooves, water flowing from the roof often does not even reach the bottom row of boards.

The lathing for a roof made of a plank should be made of poles with a chipped top edge or from bars with a section of 50x50 millimeters, located at a distance of 500 to 1000 millimeters (depending on how far the rafters are placed from one another, and how thick the lathing has). The poles (bars) are fastened with nails from 100 to 150 millimeters long, nailing them to each rafter.

A timber roof can be installed in three ways: roof with strips, split (single-layer) and two-layer.

Roof with strips

Boards of such a roof (see Figure 2) are placed in one row close to each other, and preferably tray up. The seams between the boards are closed with strips - slats 100 millimeters wide with grooves selected along their edges for water drainage. Nails are hammered into the boards at a distance of 30-40 millimeters from the edges; nails are also hammered into the strips along the edges, but not into the grooves. Planks and strips are attached to each purlin. This measure is necessary because the boards dry out over time, and a mini-space is formed near each nail through which water can penetrate. The cover strip covers all of this, thereby preventing the penetration of water into the cracks.

Spreading roof

It is a single layer covering (see figure 3), consisting of a bottom and top row. The boards of the lower row are laid at some distance from each other, but so that the boards of the upper row overlap them along the edges by at least 50 millimeters. The boards of the upper row are nailed along the edges from both sides into each batten. Boards of the lower row should be stacked with the tray up, and the top (with grooves) - with the tray down.

Two-layer roof

Such a roof (see Figure 4) is rightly considered the most reliable and durable. With a two-layer coating, taking into account the warping of the boards, the lower row is laid with a tray up, and the upper one - vice versa. The boards should fit snugly against each other. The second row is placed so that each board overlaps with its middle the gaps of the lower row. Planks are attached to each batten, and nails are placed along the edges.

In order for the roof of the Tesa to serve as long as possible, it must be looked after. Care is to remove snow from the roof in early spring. If defects (chips, cracks) are found, they must be immediately eliminated. They can be sealed with water-resistant compounds or sealed with patches on putty or, in extreme cases, on bitumen.